‘Moms Against Bombs’ vigil Saturday

This year’s theme, “Moms Against Bombs,” honors the origin of Mother’s Day, which was established in part by the social activist and poet Julia Ward Howe.

“In 1870, after the Civil War, Howe called for mothers everywhere to unite against the continuing use of violence and war to solve differences,” said Leonard Eiger of Ground Zero.

Ground Zero members frequently protest at Bangor, home of a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons.

The Trident submarine base contains the largest concentration of operational nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal. Each of the eight Trident submarines at Bangor carries up to 24 Trident II (D-5) missiles, each capable of being armed with as many as eight independently targetable nuclear warheads. Each nuclear warhead has an explosive force between 100 and 475 kilotons (up to 30 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb).

The Mother’s Day weekend program includes education about nuclear weapons and Trident, nonviolence training, a vigil at the Kitsap Mall, and a vigil and nonviolent direct action at one of the Bangor entrance gates.

For more than 33 years, Ground Zero has engaged in education, nonviolence training, resistance against Trident and action toward a world without nuclear weapons.

Ground Zero holds three scheduled vigils and actions each year in resistance to Trident and in protest of U.S. nuclear weapons policy and its costs. Participants have been working to reverse the Navy’s plan to build a second explosives handling wharf at Bangor. Ground Zero is also working to defund the Navy’s plans for the next generation ballistic missile submarines, estimated to cost $99 billion to build.

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